Times Tables Have Been Around For Thousands Of Years And Still Learnt In The Same Way

Times tables have been used for everyday calculations or many thousands of years.

Ian Stewart, Professor at the University of Warwick, says that they have been known of for at least three thousand five hundred years.

A good question to ask is in all that time have we found something that can make times tables interesting for your children to learn?
One fantastic thing about the times tables is the patterns that can be seen in them. These times tables number patterns are interesting and fun to see.

To see what I mean read on to the following example given by Professor Ian Stewart in an article he wrote in 2010. The ten times tables pattern;

All you have to do is add a zero to each number from one to twelve and you have the answer to the ten times tables from one to twelve. A very simple pattern.How about the nine times tables? Any patterns there? Yes. Look at the answers to the nine times tables from one times to ten times - 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90.

Can you see how the last number in the answer descends?

9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, Do you see it in the answers above.

Lets look at the five times table as a final example. The answers to the first ten are; 5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50.

Two different patterns can be seen when you look. First, when you take the last number of each answer you get; 5,0,5,0,5,0,5,0,5,0. Second, when you take the first number from each of the 5 times tables answers you get; of 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5. For each of the individual times tables patterns can be seen and help make the times tables more interesting to work with and learn.

Times tables patterns are important. Your children can notice the patterns, enjoy the patterns and see numbers as fun. There is one thing though that you also need to know. Just knowing the patterns is not good enough for your children to learn the times tables well. They have to do other things for this to happen.

At the end of his article the professor mentions that times tables do not have to be learned as they have been in the past, and of course the dreaded drilling and rote learning that children dislike come to mind.

These days the internet provides a variety of ways to learn the times tables, however, which of the many actually works?

Which should you encourage your children to do so that they know them with ease?

Well, there is a fantastic way for your children to learn the times tables that makes it very easy to remember them.The technique that you need to use to help the times tables embed into your children's memories is one that uses movement, colour and images.

These factors make a massive difference to your children's ability to recall the times tables easily and well.

By: Olivia Chandler

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For more information on times tables, goto www.timestablesmaths.com.